Word of Warning

A member of the Eisenhower Administration last week warned businessmen of their new responsibilities. "Business is on trial in Washington," Commerce Secretary Sinclair Weeks told a convention of magazine publishers at White Sulphur Springs, W.Va. "Business is also on trial in Wall Street and Main Street . . . In the days of Horatio Alger and Calvin Coolidge, business was the pin-up hero. Then came the financial crash and the Depression. That tragedy gave every rabble-rouser a chance to blame business . . . It has taken business more than two decades to climb back to where it is respected and trusted again.

"But the current popular confidence is a fingers-crossed faith, which could be changed into a thumbs-down rejection, if this time a pro-business Government and private business enterprise muff the ball . . . Sheer business enterprise, motivated solely by self-interest, is not enough . . . It is up to businessmen themselves to add . . . business statesmanship . . . Business [must] think and act as though it had the chief responsibility of solving all the gigantic problems that confront our nation . . . Business [must] have the courage and the common sense to rise above class interest to heights of economic statesmanship, which asks before every private or public move: 'What is best for our whole country?' "

Concluded Secretary Weeks: "Unless businessmen do their part . . .to maintain a high economic level and a high degree of intelligence in dealing with the public, business will be back in the doghouse."

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